1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for collecting information and monitoring production, and more particularly to a system and method for collecting punch information from shop floors and monitoring production on a real-time basis.
2. Description of Related Art
With economic globalization and intense business competition, many enterprises are facing more difficulties and challenges than ever before. Suppliers of goods have to strive to meet more stringent demands from customers, such as shorter delivery times, more customized products, higher quality and lower price. Manufacturers need to collect production information in real time to improve management of shop floors in factories. Traditionally, production information at shop floors is collected by hand. For example, by dictation and recording with a pen, or by manually inputting data into a computer terminal. It takes a long time to collect the original information, let alone effectively organize and analyze the collected information and finally respond to it. It is imperative for many enterprises to establish a system for instantly monitoring production information and quickly responding to problems identified at the shop floor. Such system can greatly improve efficiency and effectiveness of production.
With the recent development and widespread application of information technology, production information is now collected automatically at many facilities. Barcode technology is a typical means used for automated collection. To apply barcode technology, a manufacturer has to first label all the products, devices and apparatuses with barcodes. Operators at shop floors scan the barcodes with barcode readers, and the obtained production information is automatically stored into a monitoring computer. Barcode technology simplifies the collection of production information to a certain degree. However, it is costly, and the collection of information is only partly automated. In addition, information-collecting sensors attached to machines on the shop floor are usually not fully utilized.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method that completely automates collection of production information and that fully utilizes information-collecting sensors.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a system and method for collecting production information from shop floors and for monitoring production, whereby a user at a remote location can obtain real-time information on machines used in the production.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system and method for collecting production information from shop floors and for monitoring production, whereby a user can obtain real-time information of all machines located at different shop floors.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method for collecting production information from shop floors and for monitoring production, whereby a user can know in real time of any current abnormality in production, and can quickly respond to thereby maintain production.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a system and method for collecting production information and for monitoring production, wherein all production information including production abnormalities is stored in a database for future reference.
To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a system and method for collecting production information from punch machines at shop floors and for monitoring production performed by the punch machines. The system comprises information collectors respectively connected to the punch machines, the information collectors obtaining machine-related real-time information and converting such information into computer-readable information; a monitoring computer located remotely from the shop floors and connected with the information collectors via a first communication link, the monitoring computer obtaining the computer-readable information from the information collectors according to pre-installed information obtaining instructions; and a database that stores information obtained by the monitoring computer and information set by users. Users can inquire of all information stored in the database at personal computers that are connected to the database via a second communication link. Each punch machine is assigned with a particular network ID representing its identification in the whole system. Therefore a user can readily identify information on a specific machine and control that machine""s production.